Turtle (Pwapwa) Soup

Dear Mom and Dad,
Thanks for the email even though you sent out a letter in the snail mail. It is always nice to hear from you guys as much as I can. So things are going great out here right now. The work is going great. We are on Weno right now because we had zone p-day yesterday. We were supposed to go back to our islands after everything but we ended up staying the night because our zone leader, Elder Hill, is leaving to Guam today to be the new zone leader there. It is a long story about the whole organization and why it is all happening. We are all sad to have to see Elder Hill leave. He is a stud missionary. We are all going to miss him a lot.
So about the missionary pal book, don't worry about getting the one in the best condition you can find. It doesn't matter to me at all. Just having one is great. I really could have used it the other day when we tracted into some guy who is a head church leader for one of the protestant churches here in Micronesia. He was really hard hearted and only wanted to bash. He says that none of our doctrine is in the Bible so I would have loved to show him how everything really is in there and the Book of Mormon is another testament of Jesus Christ. He said he was busy and could go back another day. We didn't get the chance to meet with him again though. It was probably a good thing. Contention isn't good so we avoided it I guess.
So we have a baptism coming up next week if the guy can stop smoking. We have been working on helping him with his struggles and he is showing some real heart and desire. We have been meeting with him for literally two times a day to make sure all is well. Hopefully it will all turn out good.
I wrote to you about this in a letter I sent out today but I think it would be neat for you to hear about it sooner because I know you have asked me about it a few times. I did get the chance to eat something cool the other day and I will eat it again tonight at a branch party. It is a soup with pwapwa in it (turtle). It is really really good. I love it. It is like a lean beef. I think that turtles are on the endangered species list or something because I know that it is illegal to have anything in the states made out of turtle shell. I wanted to send home some rings they make from the shell but I don't want to risk it. I heard it is a $10,000 fine. The turtle we are going to have tonight is huge! It is the biggest turtle a lot of the Chuukese have seen. I took pictures of it when they were dragging it over to the branch president's house. He lives right next to us so it is just laying on its back outside our house. It is sad to see it just have to sit there and wait to be killed. It tries really hard to flip itself over but it can't do it by itself. The little kids around us all torture it and throw rocks at it. We watch out for it and take care of it the best we can. They leave it sitting out in the sun all day and it seems like it would dry up so we take water out to it and pour it all over it. We just want it to have a little less suffering in its last few days. Even though it is illegal to kill them the Chuukese really don't care. They have eaten them for as long as they have lived here so it doesn't really dawn on them that the turtle is protected. They probably don't understand what it means that a species is in danger of becoming extinct. That would be a way complicated thing for these people to comprehend.
Well there really isn't much news for now. We have been working hard and things are going great. I have another letter from last week that I forgot to bring with me today but I will be having it sent out on the 20th so you will get that soon. That has a lot of the news from last week. I am looking forward to hearing from you soon. I hope all is going well. I am glad to hear that Grandpa is continuing to progress with everything. Give him and Grandma my love. I wrote them a letter that will be send out on the 20th as well.